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Mindless Activities You Do at Work That Don’t Actually Do Anything

21 Oct, 2015
•
McKell Naegle

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We all have daily filler tasks that end up being more of a distraction than most of us are willing to admit. You know the drill: email, Facebook, work, phone call, email, Facebook, work, work, work, Facebook, etc. etc. Sometimes it can be hard to recognize how much time these tiny distractions are taking up, so we’ve made a list of all of the mindless activities you do while sitting at work that don’t actually help you get anything done. The first step towards fixing a problem is acknowledging that it exists, right?

Scrolling Through Facebook

Picture this: You’re in the zone, working away, when suddenly you hit a roadblock. Without even thinking you look down at your phone and mindlessly pull up Facebook. Until you realize: “What am I doing?” or “Did my boss just walk by?” or “Why am I even on this site?” While you know it’s no good for you to listen to its siren call, sometimes we all need a mental breather. Perhaps a better way of giving your brain a break would be to switch to a different task momentarily or listen to some calming music.

Deleting All the Spam Emails You Got over the Weekend

How do all of these random companies even get my email? It makes no sense. What’s even more frustrating is that deleting 27 emails about flash sales and top news stories tends to suck up a good amount of time.

Did Someone Say “Cats”?

A wise woman once said, “All YouTube roads lead to cats.” That wise woman was me. It doesn’t matter how legitimate and work-related your original reason for being on YouTube was, you’ll always end up watching something about cats. It’s inevitable.

Forgetting Why You Went to a Site as Soon as You Get There

The Internet age equivalent of walking into a room and saying “Wait, what was I doing?”, this may lead to confusedly clicking between tabs, blankly staring at your computer screen, and repeatedly checking your email.

Reading Blog Posts about Things You Already Know

You know you do this. Don’t lie. You’re doing at least one of the things on this list right now. (Hint: you’re currently reading about it.)

Now that you’re aware of the problem, perhaps the next thing you should do is brainstorm ways that you can avoid mindless activities. Right after you watch that video about kittens learning things for the first time, of course. I mean, come on. They’re adorable.